


Sick Day

by Mattecat



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: I'm trans lego trash basically, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Character(s), Nonbinary Emmet, Nonbinary Unikitty, Other, Sickfic, Vomiting, come polyship with me, even though it's not technically the complete lego polyship whoops, focus on male character, focus on polyamorous relationship, it's the beginning of lego polyship whatever, like it's barely implied at all but I've really got to mention it so, nonstandard pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-09-22
Packaged: 2018-02-18 10:44:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2345567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattecat/pseuds/Mattecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone but Business gets sick, and now he has to take care of all of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Day

**Author's Note:**

> important stuff: I am trans lego trash who has a lot of trans headcanons. only two of them are in this fic, and they are nonbinary unikitty and nonbinary emmet. unikitty uses ze/zir pronouns and emmet uses they/them.
> 
> as for the implied abuse tag: it's really only a minor implication but it's still there so I'm tagging it just to be safe.
> 
> I've been in a big writing funk lately and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, so have something really self indulgent. there might be a second chapter but I'm marking it complete for now bc I have no idea how to end it.

It started out small enough. Emmet woke up one morning with a fever and all their joints aching, and Wyldstyle eventually convinced them to call in sick to work.  
  
"'S probably a twenty-four-hour thing," they said, sitting on a couch wrapped in a blanket. "I'll be better soon."  
  
The next morning, Emmet couldn't keep their food down, and Benny and Wyldstyle both had a fever. While Metalbeard, Unikitty, Batman, and the cops all fussed over their sickly partners (not that Batman would ever call it "fussing"), Business stayed away from them all and locked himself in his office.  
  
"Look, I'm sorry," he said when Unikitty questioned him through the door, "but I'm not going to risk catching whatever _disease_ you all have. I'm quarantining myself."  
  
"You are so _mean_!" Unikitty said, standing up on zir hind legs to try and peer through the keyhole. "What if we all get sick and you're the only one left? Then you'll have to come out and take care of _all_ of us."  
  
"That's not going to happen," Business said, and that was the end of it. Eventually, Unikitty left him alone.  
  
Business spent the night sleeping on his office floor, and upon morning, he was awoken by the sound of hooves banging on the door and Unikitty calling to him. He tried to ignore zir, but ze persisted, and finally he sat up and said, "What is it?"  
  
"We're all sick," Unikitty whined.  
  
"What? No. Seriously?"  
  
"Seriously! I feel awful and dizzy and awful and I haven't eaten anything but I think I'm gonna throw up anyway. You have to help us!"  
  
For a moment, Business just lay there, staring off into space. "You're really all sick," he said.  
  
"Really really really!"  
  
He sighed. "Step back from the door so I can come out."

* * *

Unikitty looked awful, zir normally pink fur colored a sickly green. "Come on," Business said, leading zir to the kitchen. "Are you really going to throw up?"  
  
"I dunno," said Unikitty.  
  
"Well, we should get some fluids in you anyway. It's important when you're sick."  
  
Unikitty only made it halfway to the kitchen before ze yelped and dashed off. "Where are you --" Business was cut off by the sound of retching, and suppressed a groan. "It's fine," he said when Unikitty wobbled back, pale and teary-eyed. "Did you make it to the toilet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Well, that's fine too. I'll clean it up later. Now you really need to get some fluids in you."  
  
Unikitty blinked back tears and pressed zir head to Business' side. "Thank you, Busy."  
  
Business raised his eyebrow at the nickname, but patted zir in what he hoped was a comforting fashion, making a mental note to wash his hands thoroughly as soon as he got a chance. Also possibly burn his clothes. "Not a problem."

* * *

Benny walked into the kitchen while Business was boiling water for tea, Unikitty wrapped in a blanket and sitting at the table. Business glanced over at him and noticed he was carrying a bucket. "Do I want to know what's in there?" he said.  
  
"It's barf," croaked Benny.  
  
"That was a hypothetical question to which the answer was 'no'. Also, ew."  
  
"It's really gross. D'ya wanna see?"  
  
Business recoiled. "Benny, no!" Unikitty cried.  
  
"I'm joking." Benny plopped himself in a chair and put the bucket on the table. "I feel horrible."  
  
"No wonder, you're supposed to be in bed, resting." The teakettle started whistling, and Business quickly prepared two mugs of tea. "What are you doing down here?"  
  
"Don' wanna stay in bed all day," Benny said. "I think I'm dying."  
  
"You're not dying." Business carried the mugs to the table, taking extraordinary care not to look at the contents of Benny's bucket, and put the two mugs in front of Unikitty and Benny. "Careful. Wait until it cools a little."  
  
"I threw up black bile. I think that means I'm dying." Benny sipped at the tea gingerly. "I need to write a will and everything."  
  
Business groaned. "You're _not dying_. Shut up and drink your tea."  
  
"Be nice, Busy," said Unikitty.  
  
"I am not nice." Business raised a hand to rub his eyes, then stopped himself. "Ugh. I need to check on the others. Will you two be fine by yourselves?"  
  
Unikitty nodded. Benny grumbled something about dying again. "Okay," Business said, backing out of the kitchen. "Shout if you need me, and try not to throw up anywhere that's not a sink or a toilet. Or a bucket."  
  
Unikitty waved zir hoof and lapped at zir tea. Benny made a face and reached for his bucket again. Business got out of there as fast as he could.

* * *

Though they each had their own rooms, for the most part, there was one large bedroom that was usually shared by all of them. Business knocked on the door of it and said, "Who's in here?"  
  
He heard the sound of people moving inside the room, a door slamming, and Emmet's voice – sounding so hoarse as to be almost unrecognizable – saying, "Good Cop, no, we need that!"  
  
"Me, Emmet, Batman, and the cops just locked themselves in the bathroom," came Wyldstyle's voice after a moment's pause. "Where's Unikitty 'n Metalbeard? Are they sick?"  
  
"Yes. Unikitty's in the kitchen with Benny. Don't know where Metalbeard is, but Unikitty says he's sick too, so it's up to me to take care of you all."  
  
"I can help!" Emmet said. "I'm not _that_ sick! I mean, I got sick first, so –"  
  
Business sighed. "Emmet, you sound horrible. Stay in bed. Unless… I don't know, I don't suppose any of you want to come downstairs for tea?"  
  
"I dunno." Wyldstyle said. There was another moment's pause, and then she said, "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but Good Cop's never going to come out of the bathroom unless you leave."  
  
"Yes, I know." Business covered his face in his hands. "Ugh. Uh. Look, you all need fluids in you, so I'm going to bring up a couple gallons of water, and then you won't need to come down unless you get hungry. I don't know. All I know about treating sick people is that you need lots of fluids to get better. Maybe I'll make soup. I don't know how to make soup."  
  
"You can't make soup?" Wyldstyle said incredulously.  
  
"Look, there's a lot of things I can't do, okay?" Business shook his head, even though nobody inside the room could see him. "Never mind. I'll bring up some water and see if I can make soup. Alright?"  
  
"Okay," said Wyldstyle, while Emmet mumbled their agreement. Business turned to leave, then paused when he realized something.  
  
"Hey, you said Batman was in there, but I haven't heard him say anything. How's he doing?"  
  
"Uh," said Emmet.  
  
From inside the room came a low, hoarse growling sound that barely sounded human.  
  
"Not good, huh?"  
  
"Go get the water," said Wyldstyle.  
  
"Alright, I'm going!"

* * *

Business made two trips to carry four gallons of water up to the room. "It might taste a little bit like milk," he said, placing the last two in front of the door. "I used the old milk gallons we rinsed out."  
  
"See, Wyldstyle, I told you it was a good idea to save those!"  
  
"Emmet, you've been sick for three days, how are you still this… perky." Wyldstyle sighed. "Whatever. Business, you've got to go so we can have our bathroom back."  
  
"I know, I'm going. I've got to check on Metalbeard, anyway." Business stepped back from the door. "Feel better, alright? I mean it."  
  
He had already turned away from the door when he heard Good Cop's voice.  
  
"Was that an _order_ , sir?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
Business winced. "Hey," Wyldstyle said from inside. "That was kind of uncalled for –"  
  
"Wyldstyle," Good Cop said, raising his voice, "you have _no idea_ –"  
  
Business left as quickly and as quietly as he could, before he could hear the rest.

* * *

It wasn't as if he could get angry. Business and Good Cop Bad Cop were never going to be friends, everyone knew that. It was a miracle that they could live in the same house together, when all Business had to do was raise his voice to trigger their flashbacks, a miracle that Business was allowed near _any_ of them after what he had done.  
  
Sometimes, Business didn't know why he was here. The others all had their relationship thing going on, and Business was just sharing a house with them for some reason. They said it was because he had been sharing an apartment with Emmet and they didn't want to leave him alone, but that still didn't explain why they _cared_ about him. He was just an extra. An add-on. Unnecessary. It wasn't as if any of them would have any romantic interest in _him_.  
  
Business forced himself to stop thinking about that and focus on the real mystery at hand: _where in the Man Upstair's name was Metalbeard?_  
  
After he had gone through almost the entire house, knocking on every single closed door and waiting for a reply, he returned to where Unikitty still sat in the kitchen.  
  
"I can't find Metalbeard," he said.  
  
Unikitty's ears drooped. "I saw him this morning! Maybe he went to take care of himself? He's done that before when he was sick."  
  
Business shrugged. "No clue. I don't know him as well as the rest of you."  
  
"Nobody knows him as well as me," Unikitty said proudly. Then ze paused, tilting zir head. "Well, except maybe Benny, because they've had their relationship longer than I have."  
  
Business opened up the pantry door and found a row of soup cans. "I thought you were all in one relationship."  
  
"We call it one relationship, but it's more complicated than that. Technically I'm not in a relationship with Emmet, but I'm in a relationship with Benny who _is_ in a relationship with Emmet, and it kind of goes like that? Like not all of us are in a relationship with each other but there's enough overlap that we call it one relationship."  
  
Ze yawned. "Relationship doesn't sound like a word anymore. Relationship relationship relationship relationship –"  
  
"Please stop."  
  
Unikitty giggled, but ze did stop.  
  
Business pulled out what he thought was enough soup cans and dumped them on the counter. "I don't suppose you know how to make soup?"  
  
"You're really nice," said Unikitty.  
  
"No, I'm not, and that doesn't answer my question."  
  
"You are," ze said firmly. "You could've just kept locking yourself in your office, but you didn't! You came out and took care of us! You _are_ nice."  
  
"If I hadn't taken care of you, you would've all kicked me out." Business decided not to keep asking about the soup and instead checked the cans' label for instructions.  
  
"Is that the only reason why?"  
  
Heat in saucepan. Okay, he could do that. Probably. Business grabbed a pot and poured the soup cans in, one by one. "I've got to do something to justify being here."  
  
Unikitty wrinkled zir nose. "Is _that_ the only reason why?"  
  
"What are you trying to get at?"  
  
"I'm _trying_ to find out if you _like_ us or not."  
  
Business froze, holding an empty soup can above the pot. "What kind of question is that?" he said. "Yes, I like you, because even if none of you like me you're still the closest things I have to friends right now. Is that enough?"  
  
"You think none of us like you?"  
  
He looked at Unikitty. Ze was looking at him with wide, sad eyes, zir fur still the same sickly green color, snot running out of zir nose. "Well, yeah," he said. "Why would you?"  
  
"Because you're nice," ze said.  
  
"No, I'm not!"  
  
"Yes you are! Why are you getting so upset over this?"  
  
Business crushed the soup can in his hand. "You expect me to believe that after everything I've done, after _all_ the _horrible_ things I've done, you _like_ me?"  
  
Unikitty hesitated.  
  
That was enough answer for Business. "Look," he said. "I don't care if you don't like me. Just don't lie to me about it. Got it?"  
  
"I didn't like you at first, you know," Unikitty said. "But you're better now. You know you did horrible things and you're trying to be better. That makes a big difference, okay?"  
  
Business shook his head. "No matter how much better I am, it's never going to make up for what I've done. I don't need you to like me."  
  
"Well, I want to like you, so there."  
  
Neither of them said anything for a long while. Business remembered the soup and turned on the stove. "You never answered my question earlier."  
  
"I dunno how to make soup," Unikitty said."

"Okay."

There was another long, uncomfortable silence, broken only by the sound of Unikitty sniffling and the sizzle of the soup heating up. "I don't know how to make soup either," said Business. "This might be a problem."

"I do like you, you know," Unikitty said.

"That's..." Business thought for a moment. "That's good. I like you too."

Ze smiled, and they chatted back and forth until the soup started burning.


End file.
